


before you there was no sky (no earth, no life)

by giantsquid35



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F, Give Elsa A Girlfriend (Disney), Lesbian Elsa (Disney), elsa knows she likes girls already, i love honeymaren so much now based on what little we saw in the movie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:08:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21569692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/giantsquid35/pseuds/giantsquid35
Summary: Honeymaren had never known the sky, not until she met Elsa.Set a few months after Elsa had started living with the Northuldra, and Honeymaren can't stop thinking about her. Elsa is oblivious though, and needs things to be spelled out to her.(aka, I have a lot of feelings and thoughts, please help me sort them out)
Relationships: Elsa/Honeymaren (Disney)
Comments: 30
Kudos: 349





	1. Honeymaren

Honeymaren was born to a forest with no sky. The streams and rivers were void of sky blue and sunlight, only her hanging face and hopeful eyes reflecting back among the seeping gray mist. The ones born before this misty cage would tell stories of the sky, so bright and endless. Clouds white as snow, drifting high above, too high to touch. Birds could fly as far and as free as they wanted, enjoying this gift of earth that humans could never truly grasp.

She had never seen the sky, nor could she even imagine it, not until Elsa.

The glimmering blue dress fell across her pale skin like sheer fabric ice. That was a blue she could understand, but the blue in Elsa’s eyes were a color that could only be the accomplished by magic, she was sure. When Honeymaren met the queen’s gaze, the first thing the came to mind was that’s it. That must be the color of the sky. 

Looking up at the sky now, so vast and deep, she was almost afraid that she would fall up into it. It had been months after the eternal mist had been cleared, and Honeymaren still can’t help but think of that moment—of Elsa—when she peers into the sky.

“You belong here,” she had said to her. She had felt that in her soul, that it was only right for Elsa to find her place with the Northuldra and among the spirits. But Honeymaren would be lying if she claimed that, even with true sky now open to her, she didn’t crave the little ones in her eyes. The one’s that she didn’t have to be afraid would swallow her up, because she wanted them to.

\----

“You’re staring again,” a voice seemed to muffle in from a distance.

“Hmm?” Honeymaren’s distracted response, then, more from surprise than pain, “Ow!” as a snowball impacted the back of her head. “Ryder, stop goofing around! We’re supposed to be fishing.”

Her younger brother’s mouth fell agape at that, “Me? You’re the one not focused on the netting, staring at El—” Honeymaren promptly shoved him into stream before he could finish his sentence. Elsa had been sitting in the sun, relaxing and just hanging out with little Bruni, the fire spirit. In these summer months, Honeymaren had grown accustomed to seeing her there while she was fishing.

When Elsa wasn’t basking in the sun, she was usually with Yelena or helping the medicine women, learning more about the Northuldra, and taking an interest in the ways of healing. Often times, she and Honeymaren would walk along the river’s edge visit the water Nokk, or they’d sit by the fire and swap stories of their pasts. She wasn’t sure when, but she had slowly but surely fallen for the fifth spirit of the forest.

After a moment, the top of Ryder’s head came up above the waterline and he stared at her dangerously from the water.

“Oh no, no you don’t, we are not playing this game.”

Just as Honeymaren backed away from the edge, Ryder’s hand found its way around her ankle, but as he moved to pull his sister in with him, a flash of ice captured his wrist.

“You know, you really shouldn’t mess around so much when you’re on fishing duty, weren’t you the one who told me that it’s makes up over half of our food reserves?” Elsa had heard the commotion and made her way over to them as they argued, a small smirk on her face.

Ryder pouted as he broke free from the ice and pulled himself out of the river, “Honeymaren’s the one who pushed me in, I was just trying to be fair.”

Honeymaren smiled, pleased she didn’t end up drenched. “You’ve had it coming for a while, I think it’s completely fair.”

“Fair? You’re kidding, Elsa, tell me she’s kidding.”

“I don’t know, she makes a compelling argument,” Elsa said, feigning seriousness. Her dress was shortened today, leggings covering her legs instead in the style Elsa used when she was ready for work or anything remotely athletic. Her hair was brushed out, cascading down her shoulders and-

“You should probably go change your clothes before you get sick,” Honeymaren said looking towards her brother so as to stop staring. This made Ryder roll his eyes, but he left and did as she said anyways.

“Watching you two makes me miss Anna,” Elsa sighed, moving to sit on the boulder Honeymaren had been sitting before, pulling her legs up to herself.

“I suppose that’s easy to say when you’re so far from her,” the brown-eyed woman scoffed.

“You’ve never really spent time apart from Ryder, I imagine,” Elsa said, a smile in her voice. “I can help you fishing, since you’re down one man now,” she offered, her hand gesturing towards the stream before elegantly falling back to her side. Honeymaren didn’t—couldn’t—really voice her acceptance of the offer, letting out a small hum, turning towards the stream and biting her lip. Before she could really process what was happening, a net of ice swept up stream and came up with a full load of fish.

“I really need to do fishing duty with you more often, huh,” Honeymaren smiled brightly at the other woman. “You should come around and help me with the rest of my chores,” she teased, bumping the other women a little with her elbow as she sat next to her.

The net came down onto the bank. “You know, it kind of sounds like you’re trying to use me.”

“I would never!” Hand on her chest in mock offense.

Elsa’s laughter tickled Honeymaren’s ears and turned them red. “I don’t know, you might have to get in line,” the former queen said. Her confidence grew as she settled in with the Northuldra and it was obvious in the way she held herself. Honeymaren had noticed the difference from when she had first began staying with them. “I may make an exception for you, though. Depending.”

The words made Honeymaren’s heart skip a beat, “Depending on… what?” she prodded, ready to do almost anything. The way Elsa’s sky eyes fell on her and moved along her face, Honeymaren was sure she could see the sun shining through them. Sometimes when she was able to look into the other woman's eyes like this, she imagined them to be her own little skies.

“Hmm,” Elsa pretended to think when a voice called her name from where their people had set up the camp. It was Yelena’s voice, calling her to help with some new task. Elsa waved and stood. She gave Honeymaren a wistful smile as she walked past her. “I suppose I’ll let you know when I think of it.”

Watching her walk away, Honeymaren bit her lip and hoped no one noticed her staring again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you everyone for helping me decide what to do, and your kind comments, ya'll are too nice lol.
> 
> so i've decided to stick with it being a cohesive story, but i'll probably start doing shorts on the side for fun. going to stick with honeymaren's pov until i feel like switching it up. lastly, i know that i said elsa was oblivious, but with how this chapter ended up i think it's fair to say that she's pretty damn observant. so in place of that, i might add some drama to mix it up a little. hope it doesn't deter anyone lol
> 
> also im in finals week, i'm sorry for slow updates please be patient with me :)

The sun had barely settled into the sky as Honeymaren was finishing up her rounds on the perimeter of their camp. To no surprise, she was thinking of Elsa rather than potential outside dangers. Mostly she was thinking of how she felt about her. When she recounts the events in her head, it sounds…ridiculous. She had fallen for the first new person outside of the mist that she met.

It’s not as though it was the first time her heart thumped louder at the thought of someone. Honeymaren had previous relationships in her past that never went anywhere. But this is the first time it was for someone she didn’t know growing up, there had been a couple other people in her past. She had figured that she would grow old and settle down with one of them eventually, married in the heavy fog. But then the fog lifted.

In the beginning, Honeymaren tried to justify that maybe her feelings weren’t real. Maybe it was simply that Elsa was new. The difference was bigger than that though, she could tell. She could have feelings for anyone, and yet it wasn’t someone she already knew how to talk to and approach. It wasn’t someone without the irreverent power of a spirit, or ephemeral beauty. It wasn’t someone whom she had seen every day since childhood. Elsa wasn’t—and could never be—just another someone to Honeymaren.

As she finished her morning duties, she noticed Elsa was up as well. The blonde was seated by the fire eating breakfast. Today her hair was tied back, showing off her jawline and accentuating the curve of her neck. It took all her inner strength for Honeymaren not to go over to her immediately. She did notice, though, that Elsa was talking to Eret, one of the young men of the Northuldra, and one of Honeymaren’s former interests. He was clearly excited by the conversation, showing off for Elsa a little with what he’d been working on during warrior training. After a little laugh from Elsa bolstered his ego, he went for a full handstand, to which Honeymaren rolled her eyes to ignore the small familiar sting in her chest. Sometimes Eret needed to be knocked down a peg or two.

She snuck up from behind Eret and made a hushing motion to Elsa—making sure not to look at her too long— before she pushed Eret over and watched him land on his back with a satisfying thud.

“Ow! What the- What was that for?” Eret sat up, rubbing his back.

“Sometimes you can’t pass up a good opportunity,” Honeymaren laughed, making her way to stand by Elsa. “He wasn’t bothering you, was he?” she asked.

Elsa made a face, as if she had to think about it when Eret pushed himself up on his elbows and said, “We were just talking about y—”

“Yelena,” Elsa said firmly. “I was telling him about what she’s been teaching me.” 

Honeymaren was fairly sure something was being hidden from her, but it didn’t really matter because the way Elsa was looking at her now stopped the air from moving through her lungs. “Uh huh,” she said. Whatever was being hidden, probably had good reason to be anyways.

Eret stood and made a move to sweep under Honeymaren in retaliation, which did trip her, but she caught herself. Eret shuffled on his feet a little in a defensive stance, “How ‘bout a fair fight this time?”

Honeymaren smiled a little at the challenge, the thought of showing off the skills she gained being named head protector of the people to Elsa made her giddy. Instead of answering she made a quick turn to kick the heel of her foot to his head. When he predictably managed to block it, he moved towards her as she had to shift her weight again, but she knew his fighting style. Offensive, and reckless. Honeymaren pushed her palm to the outside of his elbow as it came in close, dodging him, and moved to sweep her leg under his feet so he’d lose balance once again. Instead of following through on that, Honeymaren managed to catch a glimpse of blue ice forming beneath him instead.

Laughing as Eret fell again, Honeymaren could feel Elsa’s eyes on her. “You really think you can take me on?”

From the ground, Eret smiled anyway. “Elsa helped you, I could have totally taken you down,” he defended.

“We both know it would’ve ended the same way,” she went to sit by Elsa now. “You know you didn’t have to do that, I could have humiliated him on my own,” Honeymaren joked.

“I could tell. You handle yourself well in a fight,” Elsa’s compliment tingled along the brunette’s ears. “I didn’t mean to interfere, it was just a reflex honestly. Couldn’t help myself,” she said. Before she could explain what she meant by that, Eret was standing again and making a big deal of how his back hurt.

“It hurts soo much, maybe it’d feel better if someone offered to take my shift on fishing today,” he said to no one in particular.

“Not even if your life depended on it,” Honeymaren winked, kicking a little at his shin. “You need to work on stealth and strategy, brute force can’t do all the work for you. You never listened when Yelena was training us.”

“You sound just like her,” Eret rolled her eyes, but she knew he didn’t mean it maliciously. “Alright, well I better get going on fishing duty, you two have fun.”

As he walked away, Honeymaren was suddenly aware of the space between her and Elsa. That is to say, the lack of space. The air suddenly felt a little colder, and Honeymaren had to bite her lip to stop herself from scooting away obviously. Or scooting away at all. 

“You don’t actually sound like her, you know. At least not a lot, though maybe when you’re older I can see it.”

“Hm?”

“Sounding like Yelena; you seemed a little upset by the comment.” Elsa’s face was hard to read, the only thing clear was her kindness.

“Oh, no not at all. I mean, it makes sense that I’d sound a little like her I guess. She is my grandmother.” This comment made Else raise her eyebrows in surprise. “You didn’t know?”

Cocking her head to the side a bit, “It’s never been mentioned, no.” With her head turned a little on its side, Honeymaren felt particularly blessed to see Elsa’s adorable confused face.

“It’s sort of just common knowledge. Yeah, she’s my grandmother, though more like a mother to me and Ryder.”

“I see.” Elsa said this thoughtfully, with a look in her eyes that said she could read between the lines. the implications of what Honeymaren had just said. That she understood more than she was letting on, and with that, she understood that Honeymaren didn’t really want to talk about it. “So I gave what we talked about the other day some thought.”

“Huh?”

“What you need to do to get bumped up the line of people who want to fish with me,.” Elsa bumped her shoulder teasingly against Honeymaren’s, the thin fabric of her dress rubbing against her.

It took a split second for Honeymaren to remember what the other woman was talking about. “Oh!” she hadn’t forgotten about the conversation—how could she—but she hadn’t expected it to come back up. “And… what’s the consensus?”

“Well, my sister is putting together a ball to celebrate the success of her first few months as Queen. If you come with me, I might consider.”

Honeymaren didn’t particularly like going down to Arendelle. The cobbled streets, and the sky completely open to her. It made her uncomfortable. Not to mention the people staring at her. One person even had the gall to call her “that little Northuldra princess,” which put a kink in her brow and the desire to punch them in her heart. But this would mean some time alone with Elsa while they travelled south.

“Of course I’ll go with you,” she said. How could she say no to an offer like that. “It’s a date then,” she smiled, then, “Oh, I mean, not a date date.”

Elsa simply hummed thoughtfully. She did that a lot. She would think to herself, and Honeymaren could see the thoughts running in her head through her sky eyes. What those thoughts were, Honeymaren could never guess, and everything in her wanted to ask her what she was thinking; to share herself a little more.

Honeymaren wasn’t sure what was going on the ice queen’s head, but the way she smiled with her eyes now, she didn’t really care.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if I want to do a switching POV where next chapter it's Elsa, or if I should just stay with Honeymaren and see how it plays out in her head only. I feel like they're both so potentially tender, I don't want to choose one over the other. this also might just become a series of shorts. Tell me what you think? What's ya'lls opinion/what do you think you want to read?


End file.
